I am shadow banned. I think because of one comment I made many years ago that was heavily downvoted? I just don't log in anymore. I emailed PG at the time and he said there's nothing he can do.
I don't fully agree with the config thing. In microsoft land you can transform your configs based on a build parameter. And if you're using MS SQL you don't even need to use a password login, you give the service account the permissions to access the database. It's pretty harmless and fairly standard.
The configs for .net I would definitely consider part of the code - they can have some really intense setup for the project!
If I was forced to put credentials in there, then I would ignore web.config, but commit a web.config.default file without the credentials. Part of the setup instructions would include copying the file after cloning the repo and putting in your own machine-specific credentials.
A country that encourages entrepreneurship? Free access to high school education? Genes that drive you forward instead of slouching on the couch? A home? Food on the table?
The 5 times I've attempted to connect to a posterous page, I've had a connection issue or something went wrong. There are technical problems with posterous and they need to get fixed. And it's slow.
My immediate gut-reaction toward this kind of statement is negative: do we really want to have private companies in charge of all mail in the US? And no doubt there are some people who rely on it and wouldn't get acceptable service (due to remoteness, etc) from a private company. Etc.
BUT: the vast majority of the mail I get through the postal service is junk mail that I don't want. The remainder is almost entirely stuff that I'd prefer to get electronically and, if the USPS were to disappear, I feel confident I would.
So I'd like to hear arguments for the continuing subsidy and existence of the USPS, but I wouldn't personally cry any tears if it were abolished tomorrow.
> BUT: the vast majority of the mail I get through the postal service is junk mail that I don't want. The remainder is almost entirely stuff that I'd prefer to get electronically and, if the USPS were to disappear, I feel confident I would.
The answer to that has to do with economic issues. Once upon a time (and I have not seen the numbers in years) 3rd class mail (what you can junk, and is now officially called Standard) actually carried its own way, and supported the cost-basis for First Class mail.
The reason(s) were varied, but had to do with the number of times a piece of mail had to be handled/sorted. Properly prepared Standard mail, had to be individually handled less than 2 times. Much of it was handled once (by the letter carrier). Standard mail arrives at the USPS dropoff already is pre-sorted by carrier route, and potentially by carrier order of travel. The mailers get a reduced rate, but not as much as it actually saves the USPS.
Getting rid of Standard Mail would actually increase cost of First Class. Standard Mail is advertising, and if they didn't advertise to you one way, they would just do it another.
My beef is less with Standard Mail, and more with political mail.
> So I'd like to hear arguments for the continuing subsidy and existence of the USPS, but I wouldn't personally cry any tears if it were abolished tomorrow.
USPS delivers (in one way or the other) to every point of presence in the USA. UPS, FedEx and DHL can not match that (although they do try to come close).
USPS also provides a variety of services that none of the others do.
USPS provides first class mail service to all Americans for the same cost (whether that letter is addressed to down the street or across the country) and provides mail service to almost everywhere people live in the United States, whether it be a small rural town or New York City.
So in part, it's a matter of equity -- that everyone in this country has equal access to postal services and the benefits they provide (which are admittedly cross-subsidized). This same rationale goes into telephone universal service funds and has been discussed in the context of the national broadband plan too.
None of the USPS' private competitors do (or I can imagine would do) this.
Indeed. I imagine that if the USPS were to be dissolved, there would need to be federal regulations put on their private competitors requiring universal service with low-cost options, much as there are in telecom. (And that the general public would strongly support such regulations not covering "junk mail".) I wonder whether FedEx/UPS/et al would be interested in such a system or not.
My understanding is that there is not a direct subsidy, but that they aren't taxed like a private organization doing the same task would be. (Of course, they fall under a different regulatory framework as well, and have obligations such as delivering to every mailbox in the US, which other organizations aren't obligated to. So it's certainly not an apples-to-apples comparison, either.)
Quick! Let start a subversive private mail company, like Lysander Spooner's American Letter Mail Company. His company literally compete with the USPS for business until it was shut down by the governmenet's lawyering.
He succeeded in driving down the cost of government mail.
Instead, UPS and FedEx have taken the high-margin segment, leaving the low margin stuff for the USPS. Also, much of what Lysander Spooner's company was great for is now covered by email and other Internet apps. (IIRC, an attraction was that intra-city mail was delivered quickly.)
It may stand up to wind but it doesn't look like it keeps the rain off of you. If you have 100mph winds coming in from an angle you better expect the rain to come in at the same angle too
Obviously. But the wind doesn't blow at 100 all the time, it gusts. You use the umbrella to keep the rain off most of the time, but you want it to survive the gusts.
I have and I have a few people offering to help and a few more offering to help - for a fee. The frustration comes with the problem that the people who offer to help never do and the people who I hire to help often move much slower than my patience can allow for. This is mostly due to the fact that I am broke and can only afford people who do this on the side.
Don't get me wrong it's not that I cannot program, thus solving my own problem, it's that after years of trying, learning and effort I still suck at programming. What takes me hours to do takes [you] minutes. That's hours away from everything else. Hours of frustration and hours of face-bashing.
I am actively attending meet-ups, I am here and numerous other places and I am actively 'socializing'.
The great irony is that it is easier to find users than it is to find a partner.
